Ben Bernanke Quotes & Sayings

“Importantly, in the 1930s, in the Great Depression, the Federal Reserve, despite its mandate, was quite passive and, as a result, financial crisis became very severe, lasted essentially from 1929 to 1933.”

“Achieving price stability is not only important in itself, it is also central to attaining the Federal Reserve's other mandate objectives of maximum sustainable employment and moderate long-term interest rates.”

“The crisis and recession have led to very low interest rates, it is true, but these events have also destroyed jobs, hamstrung economic growth and led to sharp declines in the values of many homes and businesses.”

“Monetary policy cannot do much about long-run growth, all we can try to do is to try to smooth out periods where the economy is depressed because of lack of demand.”

“In fact, the world needs more nerds.”

“The lesson of history is that you do not get a sustained economic recovery as long as the financial system is in crisis.”

“It must be awfully frustrating to get a small raise at work and then have it all eaten by a higher cost of commuting.”

“It's the price of success: people start to think you're omnipotent.”

“A gold standard doesn't imply stability in the prices of the goods and services that people buy every day, it implies a stability in the price of gold itself.”

“If you want to understand geology, study earthquakes. If you want to understand the economy, study the Depression.”